Through a determined and uncompromising commitment to a new lifestyle through proper nutrition and daily exercise, I lost 35 lbs. after my surgery. The result is that I am no longer taking ANY medication. No statins, no blood pressure pills, no beta blockers, no anti-platelet drugs. I only take a baby aspirin and vitamin D, and coQ10 enzyme daily. I feel reinvigorated, am in the best shape of my life, and had to buy an entirely new wardrobe. It is much easier to shop for clothes when everything fits perfectly.

I have adopted/am attempting to adopt a diet called "My Great- Grandmother's " diet - it is not a diet as such, but more a style of living. My Great - Grandmother lived in a time when there were no Supermarkets, not much "manufactured" foods and nobody had much money. Just about everything that she and Great- Grandfather ate was made by her own hands.

Yes I have, earlier this month. This test along with other blood tests (see below) that are not normally requisitioned by doctors have provided me with more pieces to my heart disease puzzle. The purpose of these test and the angiodefender is to help me understand the current status of atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction.

I scored 'medium risk' with an FMD% score of 6.8%. A score of 5% or less places you at high risk and 9% or higher places you at low risk. Essentially, FMD measures the elasticity (degree of dilation during rapid blood flow) of your artery's endothelium. The less elastic, the more plaque that has built up. In essence you get an idea of the degree of blockages in your arteries without the need for an angiogram which is invasive and involves real risks.

I wish this had existed before my surgery so I could have taken the test then. I likely would have been 'high risk' at that time, but it would have provided me with a warning about my health and I could have taken corrective measures before the need for surgery.

Now I have a baseline for future use to see if my lifestyle changes are 'reversing' the heart disease (removing some of the accumulated plaque deposits). So next year if I score 'low risk' I'll know that my lifestyle changes are having a material impact and it will motivate me to stick to them.

hbA1C - diabetes test - measures average level of blood glucose over the last 3 months;

Together with the standard Lipid profile: total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, Triglycerides, cholesterol ratio, these blood tests and the angiodefender (brachial artery responsiveness test) - provide a more complete picture of what's going on in your body.

I scored low risk in all tests except the angiodefender where I was rated medium risk.

I also got a professionally measured body fat score to use as a baseline for the future.

These blood tests can all be part of one visit for blood chemistry. Its just a matter of requesting these from your physician.

Many thanks. I assume you are paying for all these tests, the NHS here in U.K. will not provide this.

Unfortunately you didn't answer my question "You say you had triple bypass in March 2015 and five stents post surgery - when and why did you have the stents?" Is this something you would share.

I have been following the Esselstyn/Ornish type diets since my bypass to help 'reverse' my atherosclerosis- the brachial artery responsiveness test would perhaps give an indication it's working or not!

I'm in Canada, public health care covers blood tests except MPO which was $35 CAD. Angiodefender was $175 CAD. I would pay to have these done even if public health didn't cover.

Ornish is too strict. I use lots olive oli in my diet and feta cheese. He only did the one study with the strict diet. My experience tells you it is still possible yet still have fish, olive oil and goat dairy.

I too have had all these test done as well but see my post on getting them much cheaper in Portugal. The Angiodefender is something I have also read about but have not discovered where you can get the test. Can anyone put me right on this

The reason I have 5 stents was because the original bypass had complications. One graft which used a harvested vein from my leg occluded completely with plaque within 30 days of surgery rendering that bypass useless. The artery it was trying to bypass had 4 blockages in it. They felt that bypass would be a better long-term solution than stenting. As it turned out, they had to stent the original artery 2 months after my surgery. They placed 3 stents to open 4 blockages, as 2 were close to each other.

The other 2 bypasses were done by re-routing my mammary arteries and attaching them to my heart directly. Although this worked, at the point of connection, the opening was constricted. They speculated either from scar tissue or tight suturing. So they placed one stent in each artery to open up them up.

I live in Canada. VAP tests are not available here, but they are in the U.S. The purpose of the VAP test is to determine the atherogenic portion of the LDL-C value, this includes the VLDL, IDL, and remnant chylomicrons. The ApoB measure includes all of these values so it is an accurate indicator of the atherogenic components of your LDL-C. ApoB is a better indicator of CVD risk than LDL-C from everything I have read.

I have done the ApoB and ApoA-1 tests which provide the two components for determining the ApoB/ApoA-1 ratio.